Category: friends

what’s with all the b’days this week…

…somebody better be sharing cake with me, dammit.

Happy Birthday to Spider John, glad surgery went ok & get back to work already!

Happy Bday to Sinderella who hopefully will not lose her glass slipper after the ball.

Happy Bday to Jason, Hairstylist Extraordinaire—I’m pretty sure it’s tradition to give ME a free haircut for your birthday.

Happy Birthday to the Scootster—you get better with age.

and

Happy Birthday to my little brother, not so little anymore, but you’ll always be my baby bro.  You know I’ll make cake for you!

Paintball Badassery

Yesterday, my dad (Dad the Bounty Hunter) and my coworkers found ourselves at Wolverine Paintball battling it out with a rival business.  If you’ve never played paintball before, go!  It’s hilarious and stress-relieving and exercise all at once.  I must give a shoutout to Anthony (funny and patient with the newbies!), John and all the staff at Wolverine for being super friendly and really helpful to everyone in our group.

We played on two different courses: the woods and speedball.  In the woods, it’s an army-style battle, hiding in the brush, scampering from tree to tree in hopes of sniping a member of the enemy team before they get you!  Dressed in camo, I belly crawled, hid in the brush, dove behind trees and shot the hell out of the other team and got the snot shot out of me as well.  Laying in wait in the woods gets to be pretty scary—with your protective face mask on, the sound of your own breath is amplified, and your peripheral vision is limited, so hunkering down in the weeds, waiting for the enemy to pass by, my heart was racing and I was sweating and paranoid that they’d sneak up on me from behind and shoot me in the back…in other words, it was freakin’ awesome!!

The speedball course is where I got all my bruises.  I considered posting photos of the bruises here, but they have all morphed into such giant purple hideousness that I don’t want to gross you out online (but I’ll be happy to show you in person!).  The speedball field has obstacles but is clear of trees and brush, so basically, you know where your enemy is, it’s just a matter of shooting them before they shoot you as you move from obstacle to obstacle.  Where the woods course involves patience, the speedball course involves a mad rush of adrenaline as the paint goes flying every which way!

Everyone had a tremendously good time…how could you not?  You get to run around and play army or A-Team or whatever like you did when you were a kid, you get to blast people with paint and you laugh and yelp and forget about every stupid thing that was stressing you out before you got there.

My birthday is coming up, and I have to say I am truly torn between going roller skating and playing paintball…can I do both?????

(go see the gang at Wolverine and raise hell!)

A Fabulous Farewell for The Bean

One of my favorite coworkers is moving away; The Bean has been offered a job that she couldn’t pass up, and so she’s outta here!  Can’t blame her, but I hate it.  It’s such a treat to have coworkers you actually like to see, office buddies that make the whole thing a little more tolerable.  The Bean has an optimistic outlook and good sense of humor, and our office could use heaps of that–we’ll all miss her so much!

Friday night we had a little farewell gathering for The Bean over karaoke.  As many songs as we sang alone or as “The Wild Girls,” as we were dubbed by the DJ, it might as well have been our own private party.  Our posse paid tribute to Billy Idol, Pat Benatar, Wham!, Frank Sinatra, The Clash and everyone in between as we raised our glasses and raised hell.

I have my own repertoire of songs I will sing in public, drunk or completely sober–liquid courage is not required for me to do karaoke, as I’m ready to make an ass of myself 24/7.  I have my karaoke standards that are easy and fun, like “Love Shack” and “Tainted Love.”  Since it was a special evening, I decided to broaden the horizons and select something I would normally never sing outside my car.  I opted for the Violent Femmes’ “Add It Up,” the little ditty that asks “Why can’t I get just one kiss…” and ponders “Why can’t I get just one screw?” and goes on to explore “Why can’t I get just one fuck?”  It was a true crowd pleaser, but whether I’d do it again depends entirely on the crowd, really–I wouldn’t want to roll that one out at an office social or anything (though I have writhed on the floor singing “Like A Virgin” for an office event!).

I hope The Bean enjoyed her shindig.  I know I did, and her beau was a freakin’ hoot and a half!  The Bean’s got some packing to do and some loose ends to wrap up, but before you know it, she’ll have left Western NC for a bigger city and new adventures.  I’ll miss The Bean and her silliness, as well as the wisdom she’s shared with me along the way.  She is one cool chickie, and I wish her a blessing for every time she laughs in a day.  I’ll miss you—-good luck, good things, keep smiling and sharing your spirit everywhere you go, girl!

The Kung Fu movie was cool, too…

Last night, Minime and I met up with Vernie Sue and her nieces and nephews for a free outdoor showing of “Golden Blade III: Return of the Monkey’s Uncle.”  First, a free movie is a wonderful thing.  Second, a free OUTDOOR movie on a summer evening is into a realm beyond wonderful.  Third, it was kung fu: I need say no more other than it was kung fu!

A grand time was had by all in our group.  We spread a blanket under the stars and sprawled out for a couple hours.  Nice, really nice.  With no drive-in movie nearby, this is as close as we can get to that sort of experience.  I loved the movie (who doesn’t love subtitled kung fu films with tongue in cheek wit?) and loved the opportunity to just relax and laugh with friends and kids.  It was everything good about summer all rolled up into one evening.

i like to be first…

…so i’m blogging about scoot’s new lamps before he does.  scoot bought new lamps and end tables and went crazy at bed bath and beyond today, cra-zazy.  nice lamps, damn fine lamps, quality lighting.  it is also noteworthy that he made me use a coaster today!!! wtf?! how grownup is that! i don’t recall that he made our heathen wild child 10 year old girls use coasters, but i had to use one.  scoot’s nesting to prepare his new digs for his “girlfriends and hoes,” he says.  so, ladies of west ashevegas and the enka-candler area, look out! 

Tomorrow is Chiquita’s Birthday

To celebrate Chiquita’s birthday, there will be fireworks everywhere!!!

Given the recent health scares (no more dying, geez!), I’m super grateful that Chiquita’s around to celebrate this bday at all.  I’m glad my fearless wingman is doing well (despite the curse of the crushed turtle, but blame the ninja for that) and that I can go back to being the center of attention like I’m supposed to be!!

Happy Birthday, Chiquita! (remember when you tanned yourself into another ethnicity, omg! or the wayne’s world ride! or love shack karaoke?!  here’s to a million more remember whens!)

interesting

Someone told me today that they have hard time reconciling my real life good cheer with whatever the tone of the moment is in the ol’ Kat Box.  I’m cheerful to the point of being annoying most days, and often those same days, the postings in the Kat Box will be sad or serious or pissed.

I think the explanation is that I sort out all of the mayhem in my head right here for all the world to read so that when you deal with me in person (for the lucky few of you that get to bask in the glow of my glorious Katness), you get a fairly happy Kat most of the time.

It’s an interesting contrast to who I used to be, and who I used to be was a mess of exceptionally angry with huge doses of sad and fearful thrown in for good measure.  I was a raging out of control wreck for a long time with a menacing temper (for example, it’s been a few years since I’ve Walker-Texas-Ranger’ed a deadbolted door open with a swift kick).  

My temper is still fairly quick to heat up these days, but it’s just as quick to dispel.  I try not to hold grudges.  Sometimes I need some quiet to collect my wits, but I don’t like to argue anymore—arguing is not a sport that I want to medal in.  I’m not perfect, I still yell, but then I feel like a jackass, so I try not to do it often. 

I’ve learned to let it go, let it go, let it go…sounds so simple to type it out, but it took me years to get a handle on who I am (not who others want me to be, who someone manipulative might wish I was and try to push me to be). Once I got a grip on who I am at heart, then I started evaluating negative situations to determine if I could change anything about them or control any aspect of it.  If I couldn’t change the negative, then I had the choice to roll with it as it was or just walk away. 

I’ve walked away from a lot—not just the Mr. Kats, folks; over the years I’ve walked from friendships and business opportunities and the like because there was more negative than positive.  Walking away was rarely easy, but for the things I get to choose, I want to choose the good stuff, the happy stuff.  And I’ve also chosen to roll with some of the negative, just roll with it, not accept it all as my problem, just go with the flow.  Stampin’ T and I say almost every single day “It is what it is.”  We’re zen like that.

And when I get irked or sad or need to sort something out, I come here because every day isn’t rainbows and unicorns and Hallmark cards.  I type it out.  I make sense of it as I go.  Seldom do I blog about a problem and not feel at least a little better right away.  And then you have your Happy Kat back, the bouncing Tigger-like spaz that I am in person, ready to cheer you on and bake cakes and take calls and send 100 emails and sing songs and be a goofy goober.  I believe it was the wise Spongebob Squarepants who said, “We’re all goofy goobers.”  Find your inner goofy goober and nurture it!